Arch Sex Behav (2013) 42:949–959
DOI 10.1007/s10508-013-0109-x
ORIGINAL PAPER
Influences of Situational Factors and Alcohol Expectancies on Sexual
Desire and Arousal Among Heavy-Episodic Drinking Women:
Acute Alcohol Intoxication and Condom Availability
Amanda K. Gilmore • William H. George
Hong V. Nguyen • Julia R. Heiman •
Kelly Cue Davis • Jeanette Norris
•
Received: 6 August 2011 / Revised: 21 September 2012 / Accepted: 13 February 2013 / Published online: 10 May 2013
! Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract Although studies suggest that alcohol increases
women’s sexual desire, no studies to our knowledge have
examined the effects of acute alcohol intoxication on women’s
sexual desire. Themajority of researchexamining alcohol’s effects
on sexual arousal in women suggests that alcohol increases selfreported arousal. In an alcohol administration study in which
women projected themselves into an eroticized scenario depicting a consensual sexual encounter with a new male partner,
we examined the effects of alcohol and condom condition on
women’s sexual desire and arousal. The moderating effects of
sex-related alcohol expectancies were also examined. Results
revealed that alcohol intoxication was related to less desire to
engage in sex with a new partner and condom presence was
related to more desire. Alcohol interacted with sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies,indicating that more expectancy endorsement was associated with greater sexual desire and selfreported arousal in the alcohol condition, but not the control
condition. Condom condition had no effect on self-reported sexual arousal. The present research suggests that sexual desire
meritsresearchattentioninnon-clinicalsamples,andexperimental
A. K. Gilmore (&) ! W. H. George ! H. V. Nguyen
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Box
351525, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
J. R. Heiman
Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction,
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
K. C. Davis
School of Social Work, University of Washington, Seattle, WA,
USA
J. Norris
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, University of Washington,
Seattle, WA, USA
methodology can provide valuable information about alcohol’s
influence on women’s sexual desire, thus advancing our understanding of this relationship beyond cross-sectional correlations. The currentfindings also provide evidence that sex-related
alcohol expectancies may play an important role in alcoholinvolved sexual experiences including desire and arousal.
Keywords Sexual desire ! Alcohol ! Women !
Alcohol expectancies ! Sexual arousal
Introduction
There has been considerable research and clinical interest in
women’s sexual desire, much of it related to diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunctions. By contrast, little is known about
sexual desire among non-clinical samples, particularly women
who drink alcohol, and the influence of situational factors. This
is an important knowledge gap given that alcohol use before sex
is common (e.g., Fortenberry, Orr, Zimet, & Blythe, 1997) and
that the prevalence of alcohol consumption by women in the
U.S. is substantial. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism statistics indicate that 60 % of women have
had at least one drink in the past year, 21 % of these women averaged 3 or more drinks per day, and 14 % averaged one monthly
instance of heavy episodic drinking (defined as four or more
drinks within 2 h). In addition, what is known about alcohol and
sexual desire in women is limited by the seemingly exclusive
reliance on cross-sectional survey data (e.g., George & Gilmore,
2013). In comparison to extant knowledge gaps about sexual
desire, considerably more is known about alcohol and sexual
arousal, defined as a physiological and psychological sexual
sensation and excitement. Current research on alcohol and
sexual arousal suggests that alcohol attenuates physiological
sexual arousal, while increasing self-reported sexual arousal
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at low levels of intoxication and has no effect on self-reported
sexual arousal at higher levels of intoxication (e.g., George &
Gilmore, 2013). Sexual desire may, like sexual arousal, be
sensitive to situational factors, such as alcohol as well as sexual
safety considerations, especially condom availability (Graham et al., 2006; Higgins, Tanner, & Janssen, 2009). To our
knowledge, not a single experimental study exists in the literature addressing an elemental question: Do alcohol intoxication and condom availability affect women’s sexual
desire? The aim of the current study was to investigate the
effect of alcohol intoxication and condom availability in an
experimental scenario on desire to engage in sex in the scenario
and to do so while considering self-reported sexual arousal,
about which much more is known regarding alcohol’s effects.
Defining and Operationalizing Sexual Desire
Sexual desire is typically defined as an individual’s motivation
or urge to engage in sexual activity (Bancroft & Graham, 2011;
Hardy, 1964; Whalen, 1966). Indicators of sexual desire include
self-reported interest in engaging in sexual fantasy, activity, and/
or interest in experiencing sexual pleasure and orgasm. Previous
work has relied on such global definitions of sexual desire, as
operationalized in questions such as frequency of desire for
different types of sexual activity (Taylor, Rosen, & Leiblum,
1994). When defined globally, sexual desire is generally construed as a relatively stable phenomenon, and because of the
constraints inherent in cross-sectional survey methods, it has
not been considered subject to situationally proximal influences (such as acute alcohol intoxication). By contrast, a situational definition of sexual desire may be operationalized as
the desire to engage in sexual activity in a particular situation
with a particular person. An advantage unique to this approach is
the capacity to examine proximal situational factors using experimental methods, permitting evaluation of causal influences.
Thus, the current project incorporated both the traditional global
operationalization for sexual desire as a background dispositional factor and a situational operationalization to examine
proximal processes.
Alcohol and Sexual Desire
The few studies that have examinedalcohol andwomen’ssexual
desire consist of cross-sectional correlations and generally conclude that alcohol use is associated with increased sexual desire
(Beckman,1979;Harvey&Beckman,1986;Mondainietal.,2009;
Rawson, Washton, Domier, & Reiber, 2002; Woods, Mitchell,
& Julio, 2010). Among samples of women with alcohol use disorders,thereismixedevidencethatalcoholis(Heiser&Hartmann,
1987) and is not (Johnson, Phelps, & Cottler, 2004) associated with
inhibited sexual desire. This discrepancy may be attributable to
the focus on alcohol use disorders typically used to assess
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alcohol consumption and on sexual dysfunction typically used to
assess sexual desire. Another possibility is that studies to date
have only examined women’s global sexual desire. However,
sexual desire likely differs based on the situation (Kingsberg,
2010) and the contours of proximal factors, such as acute intoxication and sexual safety concerns. A benefit of a situational
versus a global operationalization of desire is that it holds
many variables constant that would differ in event-level data,
thus allowing a clearer examination of alcohol’s causal
influences.
Alcohol and Sexual Arousal
Experimental studies on women’ssexual functioning in response
to acute alcohol intoxication primarily consider only sexual
arousal rather than examining other sexual responses like sexual
desire (see review by George & Gilmore, 2013) and have shown
that acute alcohol intoxication is related to increases in selfreported sexual arousal (e.g., George et al., 2009). In 13 of 15
experiments (George & Gilmore, 2013) acute alcohol intoxication increased self-reported arousal. Therefore, because selfreported arousal and desire are both self-reported rather than
physiological indicators of sexual response, it seems reasonable
to hypothesize that alcohol will increase sexual desire. This
hypothesis is in keeping with the most likely theoretical account
of alcohol’s enhancing effect on self-reported sexual arousal. At
high dosages of alcohol (e.g., over .08 blood alcohol concentrations [BAC]) where enhancement effects on self-reported
arousal are most observed and where alcohol’s physiological
effects are indisputably involved (e.g., George et al., 2009),
Alcohol Myopia Theory (AMT) offers the most applicable
and compelling explanation (Steele & Josephs, 1990). According
to this theory, alcohol intoxication creates a myopia narrowing
the drinker’s attention to a restricted set of salient cues prompting
behavioral outcomes. Generally, in appetitive situations such as
sexual encounters, the impelling or‘‘go’’cues tend to be higher in
salience than inhibiting or‘‘stop’’cues (George & Stoner, 2000).
As a result, the drinker’s responses are more determined by
narrowed (myopic) attention to high salience impelling cues
in the moment than by lower salience inhibiting cues. Thus,
an intoxicated person compared to a sober person would likely
attend most to the sexual stimuli and her own initial arousal
changes and, as a consequence, would experience and report
more sexual arousal. Because self-reported sexual arousal and
sexual desire both are internally experienced phenomenological states and are empirically correlated (Giles & McCabe,
2009), it is also theoretically reasonable to expect that alcohol
will increase sexual desire. That is, acute intoxication would
be expected to focus the drinker more narrowly on the desire in
the situation to pursue a sexual interaction with this particular
individual and less on the factors that might otherwise inhibit
desire, resulting in more desire in intoxicated than sober women.
Arch Sex Behav (2013) 42:949–959
Sex-Related Alcohol Expectancies
While AMT is useful for explaining and describing alcohol’s
pharmacological effects, Alcohol Expectancy Theory (AET)
is useful for describing and explaining purely psychological,
i.e., without evoking physiological processes, mechanisms
accounting for alcohol’s effects on post-drinking behavior.
AET(Brown,Goldman,Inn,&Anderson,1980)suggeststhathow
individuals expect they will behave and feel while intoxicated
influences their actual behavior and feelings while intoxicated.
This process seems true of sexual behavior (George & Stoner,
2000) about which cultural messages concerning alcohol’s
aphrodisiac and disinhibitory properties abound. This process
may be attributable to a self-fulfilling prophecy analysis in which
pre-drinking expectancies shape post-drinking behavior (e.g.,
George, Stoner, Norris, Lopez, & Lehman, 2000). In relation to
sexual desire, AET posits that an individual who expects that
alcohol will promote increases in sexual responding and outcomes will likely experience greatersexual desire after drinking.
Alcohol expectancy researchers demonstrate the utility of distinct sex-related alcohol expectancies (Dermen & Cooper,
1994; Leigh, 1990). Specifically, it has been shown that individuals expect alcohol to enhance sexual experience, disinhibit sexual responding, and heighten sexual risk taking (Dermen & Cooper, 1994). According to AET, it is hypothesized that
the effects of acute alcohol intoxication on sexual desire will be
moderated by sex-related alcohol expectancies. Intoxication
should increase desire among individuals exhibiting greater
belief in alcohol’s sexually salutary effects and not among
individuals exhibiting weaker faith in such effects.
Condom Availability and Sexual Desire
Previous research examining alcohol and sexual desire has not
addressed the role of relationship context. When examining
situational sexual desire to engage in sexual activity in casual
sexual relationships, it is likely that sexual health risk factors
come into play. That is, the desire to have sex with a new partner
is experienced in the context of concerns about negative health
consequences, such as sexually transmitted infections. Thus,
one important situational factor in casual sexual situations, apart
from alcohol intoxication, is condom availability. Conner and
Flesch (2001) found that individuals expressed greater intentions to have sex in a casual encounter when a condom was available rather than unavailable. While the authors offered no explanation for this particular finding, it seems reasonable to suggest
that individuals believe that sexual health and pregnancy risks
are averted when condoms are available rather than not, thereby
fostering a greater willingness to have sex. Although women
have sex for reasons other than sexual desire, it is possible that
individuals might similarly feel more sexual desire when condoms are available rather than unavailable. This may be especially true for women, who reliably have more positive and less
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negative attitudes about condomuse than men (Sacco, Rickman,
Thompson, Levine, & Reed, 1993), and therefore would not likely
find the prospect of condom use to detract from experiencing
desire. Therefore, having a condom available may be conceptualized as a disinhibiting factor, even more so for women
than men, because it allays health risk concerns in a sexual
encounter and condom absence as an inhibiting factor because
health risk concerns remain salient.
Current Study
To date, scientific knowledge of associations between alcohol
and sexual desire are based entirely on cross-sectional research.
To clarify alcohol’s possible causal effects on sexual desire and
sexual arousal, it is important to utilize an alcohol administration
experimental paradigm to ensure that situational and intoxication factors are effectively controlled. The situation used in this
experiment was a second-person story with a new partner. ConsistentwithAMTandresearchonalcohol’seffectsonself-reported
sexual arousal (George et al., 2009), we hypothesized that desire to
engage in sex with a new partner and self-reported sexual arousal
would be higher for participants in the alcohol condition compared to controls. Consistent with AET, we hypothesized that
stronger sex-related alcohol expectancies would be associated with more desire to engage in sex with a new partner and
self-reported sexual arousal when intoxicated than when sober.
We also hypothesized that condom condition would affect
desire such that participants would have more desire to engage in
sex with a new partner and more sexual arousal when a condom
was available in the context of a casual sexual encounter compared to when a condom was unavailable. In addition to the main
hypotheses, we hypothesized that sexual desire in the scenario
and global sexual desire would be positively correlated.
Method
Participants
Female participants (n = 144) were recruited through newspapers and flyers. Because these data were part of a larger study
investigating the influence of alcohol intoxication and sexual
arousal on risky sexual decision-making, advertisements and
letters stated that the study involved ‘‘social drinking and decision-making.’’Individuals interested in participating called the
laboratory and were given more information about the procedures and were screened to determine whether they were eligible
to participate. Inclusion criteria for the female participants were
asfollows:(1)betweentheagesof21and35;(2)interestedindating
opposite sex partners; (3) not currently in a committed dating
relationship; (4) a non-problem drinker (defined as drinking
between one and 40 alcoholic beverages per week) who engaged
in heavy episodic drinking (defined as drinking 4 or more drinks
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Arch Sex Behav (2013) 42:949–959
in one drinking episode in the past 6 months). Exclusion criteria
were: current problem drinking or a history of problem drinking
and/or currently taking medications or having a health condition
contraindicated with alcohol consumption. Participants were
instructed not to drive to the laboratory, not to eat or consume
caloric drinks for 3 h before their appointments, and not to drink
alcohol or use recreational or over-the-counter drugs for 24 h
before their appointments.
Seven participants were excluded from the analyses (three
withdrew at beverage administration, one had a computer crash
during the experiment, two had a positive pregnancy test, one
used the restroom in the middle of reading the scenario), leaving
a total of 137 participants for data analyses. Participants’ mean
age was 25.3 years (SD = 3.94). The sample included 68.9 %
Caucasian, 5.2 % Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 8.9 %
African American, 1.5 % American Indian, 0.7 % Middle Eastern/North African, 13.3 % Multiracial, 1.5 % other, and 7 %
identified as Hispanic or Latino. Participants’ self-reported
typical drinking levels were on average 12.38 drinks per week
(SD = 8.40). Sixty-eight percent of participants were employed with 72 % reporting an annual income of less than $31,000
per year. Thirty-one percent were full-time or part-time college
students. Participants were paid $15 per h for their participation
in the study.
alcohol participant who had previously participated in the
study. Individuals who were assigned to a control condition were
breathalyzed at the same time intervals, completed questionnaires, and viewed the erotic film at the same time point as the
alcohol participant to whom they were yoked. Participants assigned to the alcohol condition were weighed to determine the
amount of 190-proof vodka mixed with orange juice consumed
over 9 min needed to achieve BAC of .10 % (dosage = .68 g
alcohol/kg body weight). The experimenter assessed participant BAClevelsevery3 minuntilacriterionlevel(BAC C 0.06)
was reached at which time participants began the sexual arousal
procedures. Participants assigned to a control condition were
given an equivalent volume of liquid based on body weight,
but were given orange juice only. The drinks for both conditions
were mixed in an anteroom, out of sight of the participant, and
were given to the participant by the alcohol administrator who
was a different female research assistant than the experimenter.
Subjective intoxication was assessed for both alcohol and no
alcohol conditions. A placebo condition was not used because
the probability of manipulation failures dramatically increases
when placebo participants are instructed to expect a high dose of
alcohol (Martin & Sayette, 1993).
Procedure
Participants first completed background questionnaires and then
read an eroticized scenario. Self-reported sexual desire and
sexual arousal were assessed after completing the scenario.
After finishing the experiment, intoxicated participants were
taken to a private room to detoxify. Intoxicated participants
were debriefed, paid, and released after reaching 0.03 % BAL.
Participants in the control condition were debriefed, paid, and
released immediately after the experimental condition.
Experiment Overview
Upon arrival at the laboratory, a female experimenter verified
participants’ age and identity with photo identification. Participants were given a breath test (Intoxilyzer 5000; CMI Inc.,
Owensboro, KY, USA) prior to beginning the experiment to
verify that their BAC was zero. All participants were given a
pregnancy test (Osom hCG-Urine Test, Genzyme General Diagnostics,SanDiego,CA,USA)andwereleftaloneinaprivateroom
to complete background questionnaires on a computer. After
completing the background questionnaires, participants were
given instructions on the placement of the vaginal probe and
the use of the intercom to contact the experimenter. Participants were then administered an alcoholic or non-alcoholic
beverage and were breathalyzed. Once participants reached criterion BAC, they were shown the neutral and erotic films. Then,
participants read an eroticized written scenario (see below for
description) and reported their sexual desire and arousal on a
computer. Last, participants were debriefed and paid.
Alcohol Administration
Participants were randomly assigned to an alcohol or a no alcohol
condition. A yoked control design was used to reduce error
variance in between-subjects intoxication levels. Participants
who were assigned to the control condition were yoked to an
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Sexual Desire and Arousal Assessment
Stimulus Materials
Erotic Priming To create an eroticized context in the laboratory that would support elicitation and assessment of sexual
arousal and desire, participants viewed a 6-min erotic film
(George et al., 2011). The film depicted two scenes, each showing
explicit sexual activities between a man and a woman, which
included kissing, oral sex, and vaginal intercourse (New Era
Productions and VCA Productions). The erotic film was preceded by a baseline neutral film, which was a 2.5 min documentary about birds (BBC-TV). Female participants found the
erotic films sexually arousing in a pilot study (George et al.,
2003) and experimental data on the films have been reported
elsewhere (George et al., 2011; Gilmore et al., 2010; Schacht
et al., 2007).
Eroticized Heat-of-the-Moment (HOTM) Scenario To assess
sexual desire and arousal situationally, participants were instructed to read and project themselves into a written second-person
Arch Sex Behav (2013) 42:949–959
eroticized HOTM scenario in which they were the protagonist. In
the HOTM scenario, a progression of scenes is described culminating in a decision to have intercourse. The progression of scenes
include being introduced to a novel potential dating partner by a
mutual friend while at a party, spending time with him at the party,
going to his house, and engaging in sexual foreplay activities.
Participants were randomly assigned to either a scenario where a
condom was available or a scenario where a condom was not
available. Alcohol consumption by the protagonist in the
story was matched to the participant’s alcohol condition in the
experiment (alcohol vs. no alcohol). Alcohol consumption by
the male sex partner in the story was kept constant at two alcoholic beverages. The scenario was pilot-tested, and participants’
feedback was incorporated into the final version used in the
study. Participants found the scenario realistic for the typical
woman and for themselves (Schacht et al., 2010).
Measures
Sexual Desire in Scenario
After completing the scenario, participants were asked,‘‘At this
point, how much do you desire to have sex with the man in the
story (regardless of whether or not you actually will)?’’1 The
scale was from 1(not at all) to 5 (very much) (Kuffel & Heiman, 2006).
Global Sexual Desire
Global sexual desire was assessed using three items from the
Brief Index of Female Sexual Functioning (Taylor, Rosen, &
Leiblum, 1994): ‘‘How frequently have you felt a desire to
receive oral sex during the past month?,’’‘‘How frequently have
you felt a desire to perform oral sex during the past month?,’’and
‘‘How frequently have you felt a desire to have sexual intercourse with vaginal penetration during the past month?’’Responses ranged from 1 (not at all) to 7 (more than once a day).
The scale had acceptable internal reliability (a = .74). This
scale was measured prior to drink administration and reading
the scenario.
Sex-Related Alcohol Expectancies
The sex-related alcohol expectancies questionnaire included 13
itemsandassessedalcohol expectanciesaboutsexuality(Dermen
& Cooper, 1994). There were three subscales: alcohol enhances
sexual experiences (5 items), alcohol disinhibits sexuality (4
items), and alcohol increases sexual risk-taking (4 items).
Example items include:‘‘After a few drinks of alcohol, I am a
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better lover’’(enhancement subscale);‘‘After a few drinks of alcohol, I am less likely to ask a partner to use a condom’’(sexual
risk subscale); and‘‘After a few drinks of alcohol, I find it harder
to say no to sexual advances’’(disinhibition subscale). The scale
has good internal reliability overall (a = .87) and for the subscales (enhancement a = .85, and risk-taking a = .92, and disinhibition a = .76). Responses ranged from 1 (disagree strongly)
to 6 (agree strongly). This scale was assessed prior to drink
administration and prior to reading the scenario.
Self-Reported Sexual Arousal during Scenario
Participants estimated their subjective level of arousal on a fouritem scale immediately following the scenario (1 =‘‘no sexual
arousal at all’’; 7 =‘‘extremely sexually aroused’’). These ratings
were in response to the following questions: (1) ‘‘Overall, how
much sexual arousal did you feel during the story?’’ (Heiman,
1977: Hackbert & Heiman, 2002); (2)‘‘To what extent did you
feel sensation in your genitals during the story?’’ (Heiman &
Rowland, 1983); (3) ‘‘How much sexual warmth (in your genitals, breasts, and body) did you feel during the story?’’(Meston,
Heiman, Trapnell, & Paulhus, 1998); (4)‘‘To what extent did you
feel sexually absorbed in the sensory components of the story?’’
(Koukounas & McCabe, 2001). These questions were asked
prior to the sexual desire question. The final scale included the
mean of the four items. The scale has good internal validity
(a = .96). This scale was assessed after reading the full scenario.
Data Analysis Plan
To test the hypotheses a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with categorical and continuous predictors was used with
SPSS.Allvariableswereexaminedtoensuretheassumptionsfora
MANOVA were met before analyses, independence among categorical predictors, multivariate normality, linearity, lack of
outliers, homogeneity of the variance–covariance matrix, and
multicollinearity.
Results
Preliminary Analyses
Sexual desire in the scenario was significantly related to global
sexual desire, r = .21, p = .01. For descriptive information, see
Table 1.
MANOVA
1
In the larger study (Gilmore et al., 2013), desire to engage in sex in the
scenario was significantly correlated with likelihood of engaging in sex
in the scenario (r = .56, p\.01).
A between-subjects multivariate analysis of variance with categoricalandcontinuouspredictorswasperformedontwodependent
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Arch Sex Behav (2013) 42:949–959
variables: sexual desire and self-reported sexual arousal. Independent variables were condom condition and beverage condition. Interactions tested were condom condition by beverage
condition, beverage condition by sexual enhancement alcohol expectancies, beverage condition by sexual risk alcohol
expectancies, and beverage condition by sexual disinhibition
alcohol expectancies.
With the use of Wilks’ criterion, the combined dependent
variables were significantly affected by acute alcohol intoxication, F(2, 126) = 4.62, p = .01, g2 = .07, condom presence,
F(2, 126) = 4.99, p\.01, g2 = .07 and the interaction between
acute alcohol intoxication and sexual disinhibition alcohol
expectancies, F(4, 252) = 3.18, p\.01, g2 = .05. The dependent variables were not significantly affected by the interaction between acute alcohol intoxication and sexual enhancement alcohol expectancies, F(4, 252) = 1.61, g2 = .03, or the
interaction between acute alcohol intoxication and sexual risk
alcohol expectancies, F(4,252) = 1.71, g2 = .03.
To investigate the impact of each main effect and interaction on the individual dependent variables, the univariate
between-subjects analyses were examined. Intoxicated participants expressed significantly less desire (M = 3.97, SD =
1.36) than sober participants (M = 4.46, SD = 0.93), F(1, 127)
= 9.01, p\.01, g2 = .07. There were no differences in selfreported sexual arousal based on acute alcohol intoxication
condition F(1, 127) = 2.88, p = .09, g2 = .02.
Condom presence increased desire (M = 4.41, SD = 1.03)
in the story compared to condom absence (M = 3.94, SD = 1.34),
F(1, 127) = 9.43, p\.01, g2 = .07. However, condom presence
Table 1 Descriptive
information
did not affect self-reported sexual arousal, F(1,127)\1, g2\
.01.
There was a significant interaction between acute alcohol
intoxication and sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies predicting desire, F(2, 127) = 4.69, p = .01, g2 = .07, and self-reported sexual arousal, F(2, 127) = 3.39, p = .04, g2 = .05.
An examination of the slopes revealed that sober women did
not differ in their sexual desire based on sexual disinhibition
alcohol expectancies, t(133) = .30, p = .76. Intoxicated participants, however, did differ based on sexual disinhibition alcohol
expectancies, t(133) = 3.74, p\.01, such that for intoxicated
women, those with low sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies had lower sexual desire compared than those with
high sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies (see Fig. 1).
Whenexaminingtheslopesoftheinteractionbetweenalcohol
and sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies on self-reported sexual arousal, it was found that sober women did not differ
in their self-reported sexual arousal based on sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies, t(133) = .52, p = .60. Intoxicated
participants, however, did differ based on sexual disinhibition
alcohol expectancies, t(133) = 2.56, p = .01, such that for intoxicated women, those with low sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies had lower sexual arousal compared to those with high
sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies (see Fig. 2).
Discussion
We conducted an experimental study to measure the effects of
intoxication and condom availability on sexual desire and sexual
Beverage condition
Condom condition
Alcohol
Control
Present
Absent
Age (M, SD)
Employed (% Yes)
25.83 (4.83)
64.7 %
24.95 (3.73)
75.0 %
4.98 (3.77)
68.6 %
25.96 (4.21)
70.7 %
Percent student (% Yes)
29.0 %
33.9 %
34.3 %
27.6 %
62.9 %
74.6 %
67.6 %
69.0 %
4.3 %
6.8 %
7.0 %
3.4 %
Descriptive information
Race/ethnicity
Caucasian (%)
Asian American (%)
Black/African American (%)
12.9 %
5.1 %
8.5 %
10.3 %
Multiracial (%)
15.7 %
10.2 %
11.3 %
15.5 %
4.4 %
3.3 %
5.6 %
1.8 %
Other (%)
Sexual behavior (M, SD)
Age of first consensual sex
15.87 (3.06)
16.72 (2.28)
16.37 (3.10)
16.12 (2.28)
Lifetime sex partners
25.33 (27.21)
14.63 (14.56)
18.63 (28.76)
22.29 (43.35)
Variables
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Global sexual desire (M, SD)
3.86 (1.20)
3.91 (1.17)
3.82 (1.05)
3.96 (1.33)
Sexual disinhibition expectancy
3.19 (1.32)
3.30 (1.10)
3.15 (1.20)
3.35 (1.24)
Sexual desire in scenario
Self-reported sexual arousal
3.93 (1.38)
4.39 (1.47)
4.48 (.94)
4.17 (1.47)
4.42 (1.05)
4.31 (1.48)
3.90 (1.36)
4.26 (1.47)
Arch Sex Behav (2013) 42:949–959
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those who were intoxicated and who had high sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies had more desire to engage in
sex with a new partner compared to those who were intoxicated with low sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies. In
addition, consistent with AET, sex-related alcohol expectancies moderated the relationship between alcohol and self-reported sexual arousal in a similar pattern as its effect on sexual desire:
those who were intoxicated and who had high sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies had more self-reported sexual arousal
compared to those who were intoxicated with low sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies. In regards to the condom availability effects, women expressed greater desire to engage in sex
with a new partner when a condom was available than unavailable; yet their self-reported arousal did not differ based on condom presence. Overall, these data demonstrate that desire to
engage in sex and sexual arousal can be subject to the influence of prevailing contextual conditions.
Alcohol and Sex-Related Alcohol Expectancies
Fig. 1 Interaction between sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies
and alcohol on sexual desire
Fig. 2 Interaction between sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies
and alcohol on self-reported sexual arousal
arousal to a second-person story with a new partner. In regards to
the alcohol effects, our hypotheses were partially supported.
Consistent with AMT, alcohol decreased desire to engage in
sex with a new partner and, consistent with AET, sex-related
alcohol expectancies moderated this relationship such that
Sexual Desire
Theresultsindicatedthat there wasaninteractionbetweensexual
disinhibition expectancies and acute alcohol intoxication on
desire to engage in sex with a new partner. For sober women,
while desire to engage in sex with a new partner was generally
high, it was unrelated to expectancies. For intoxicated women,
we found that desire to engage in sex with a new partner varied as
function of expectancy, consistent with an AET self-fulfilling
prophecy analysis. This is consistent with longstanding AET
accounts indicating that alcohol expectancies operate as selffulfilling prophecies, which become activated when drinking
and subsequently guide post-drinking behavior; but these same
expectancies remain inactivated and essentially dormant under
sober conditions (George et al., 2000; George, Cue, Lopez, Crowe,
& Norris, 1995; George, Derman, & Nochajski, 1989).
Despite the interaction, the negative main effect of alcohol
on desire was contrary to our initial hypothesis and therefore
warrants commentary. First, it should be noted that there was
nearly a ceiling effect on desire to engage in sex with a new
partner in the sober condition (M = 4.48 out of 5). This ceiling
effect suggests that for the majority of the women participating
in the study, desire to engage in sex with a new partner in the
scenario was quite high. Alcohol has wide-ranging effects on
one’s phenomenological experience. It is possible that other
effects, such as fatigue, may detract from feelings of sexual
desire, particularly in contrast to near ceiling levels of desire
in the sober condition. Second, in the context of an alcoholinduced reduction of desire to engage in sex, alcohol expectancies functioned as theorized, increasing desire to engage in
sex with a new partner to such an extent that intoxicated highexpectancy women achieved levels of desire comparable to
sober women. Third, the expectancy scaling was bipolar such
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956
that scores of 4-to-6 reflected agreement with alcohol-disinhibits-sexuality statements; but scores of 1-to-3 reflected disagreement with such statements. This suggests that the disagree
vs. agree scores reflected more than just expectancy strength, but
also expectancy valence. In this light, it is conceivable that socalled low-expectancy, i.e., expectancy disagreeing, intoxicated
women were focusing on protecting against what it is that
alcohol disinhibits (in this case: have sex with people whom I
wouldn’t have sex with if I were sober; do sexual things that I
wouldn’tdowhensober;findithardertosaynotosexualadvances;
be more likely to have sex on a first date). This protective stance
may have resulted in a compensatory effect, causing them to
experience less sexual desire than sober counterparts.
Finally, given alcohol had a negative rather than positive
effect on desire, AMT would infer simply that the finding was a
function of what these women were myopically attending to
during the desire to engage in sex with a new partner assessment. In addition to the self-fulfilling prophecy interpretation,
the expectancy moderation effect also supports the possibility that different women were possibly focusing on different
facets of the situation based on their individual differences in
expectancy strength. As we discussed above, the difference may
have been a function of either strength of belief in the alcoholdisinhibits-sexuality statements or valence of belief. This potentiality is consistent with the AMT-AET integration proposed by
Moss and Albery (2009), whereby expectancies dictate what
drinkers myopically attend to while intoxicated. Similarly, Davis,
Hendershot, George, Norris, and Heiman (2007) reported that
alcohol-induced myopic attention to the benefits-versus-risks
of unprotected sex was moderated by drinkers’ a priori perceptions of the likelihood of positive consequences from sexual risk
taking.
Arch Sex Behav (2013) 42:949–959
both subjective arousal and perception of genital arousal, similar
results were found when analyses were run using each item of
sexual arousal individually, suggesting that these results are not
specifically driven by an individual question or subset of questions in the sexual arousal measure.
Condom Availability
We also found a main effect of condom condition. Condom
availability predicted desire to engage in sex with a new
partner such that when a condom was present desire was higher
than when a condom was absent. This conceptually replicates a
previous finding in which individuals expressed greater intentions to have sex in a casual encounter when a condom was
available (Conner & Flesch, 2001). This finding is consistent with
the suggestion that women may believe that sexual health and
pregnancy risks can be averted when condoms are available
rather than not and thereby experience a greater desire and
willingness to have sex. Further research is warranted to ascertain whether the condom availability effects we observed are
indeed a function of perceived health risks. Also, it will be important to evaluate this effect with men, who, compared to women,
tend to have less positive and more negative attitudes about condom usage (Mizuno, Kennedy, Seals, & Myllyluoma, 2000).
We also found that condom availability did not have an
effect on self-reported sexual arousal. The results of this study
suggest that a situational factor, such as the mere presence of a
condom in a sexual scenario, can impact desire to engage in
sex but it may not change one’s sexual arousal. Thus, it may be
possible for a woman to still be sexually aroused and not want
to engage in sex if a condom is not present. This could have
implications for interventions to teach women (and men) that
arousal does not equal desire in sexual situations.
Sexual Arousal
Sexual Desire Assessment
Consistent with the sexual desire findings, there was an interaction between sexual disinhibition expectancies and acute
alcohol intoxication on self-reported sexual arousal. For intoxicated women, those with low sexual disinhibition expectancies had lower self-reported arousal compared to those with
high sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies. However, no
differences were found for self-reported sexual arousal based
on sexual disinhibition alcohol expectancies for women in the
sober condition. Given that sexual desire and self-reported sexual arousal are both self-reported measures about their sexuality,
it makes sense that the findings are in a similar direction. Consistent with the AET explanation given above that alcohol expectancies can operate as self-fulfilling prophecies activated
while drinking, if a woman believes that she is sexually disinhibited while drinking this suggests that she believes she
will be more aroused in a scenario involving sexually explicit
material. Finally, although self-reported sexual arousal was assessed using a mean score of several different questions including
123
Basing our assessment of sexual desire on a particular situation
and assessing potentially similar constructs proved important
in three ways. First, sexual desire was correlated with self-reported
sexual arousal, which was also assessed in a situationally-specific
manner. This is consistent with previous research indicating that
the two constructs inhabit overlapping conceptual space. Also,
when examining the effect of situational factors like alcohol
and condom presence, the results differed somewhat for sexual
desire and sexual arousal. This suggests that self-reported arousal, a composite score of genital and psychological arousal, and
desire to engage in sex—at least, when measured situationally—
arenot redundant.Second,oursituationally specificsexual desire
assessment was significantly but only modestly correlated with
the global assessment, accounting for less than 4 % of shared
variance. Methodologically speaking, this low association
suggests utility in supplementing global indicators with situational indicators, depending on the study questions. It would be
Arch Sex Behav (2013) 42:949–959
valuable to capture sexual desire varying along dimensions of
particular conceptual or clinical relevance: Sexual desire with an
established mate versus a new partner, a high versus low risk
situation, a situation related to previous trauma or currentpartner
conflict, etc. Such work could conceivably reveal that, when
responding to global indicators, respondents are estimating
across only certain types of situations systematically and thus
not fully capturing the breadth of their sexual desire experience or capacity. The low association observed in the current
study also indicates that the particular situation used here—a
newly met casual partner encountered in a party situation involving alcohol—was not typical of the types of circumstances
participants considered when responding to the global assessment. Third, as noted earlier, situationally assessed desire proved
sensitive to these in-the-moment influences, suggesting the utility
of exploring other situational determinants of desire.
Strengths and Limitations
A strength of this study was that we examined sexual desire and
self-reported sexual arousal in an experimental paradigm. This
allowed for a better understanding of the relationship between
alcohol and sexual desire separate from the relationship between
alcohol and self-reported sexual arousal. Anotherstrength of this
study is that alcohol factors, including dosage and limb of the
BACcurve,werecontrolledthroughrigorousproceduresinvolving
consistent BAC monitoring and specific BAC criterion starting
points. A limitation of the alcohol administration procedure is
that a placebo condition was not used; however, placebos are
generally ineffective at such high alcohol doses (Martin &
Sayette,1993).Anotherstrengthregardingourcommunitysample
was including both students and nonstudents, bolstering the
generalizability of our findings.
This study used a single item to measure sexual desire. Many
of the global sexual desire measures include multiple items to
indicate sexual desire. It would be beneficial to examine the
current findings while using a multiple item indicator of situational sexual desire which may include additional questions
about desires to engage in specific sexual behaviors or current
presence of sexual fantasies. The significant correlation with
global sexual desire provides some support—albeit modest—
forthevalidityofthesituational sexual desiremeasure.Garnering
further construct validity evidence is certainly warranted. Two
specific recommendations that would likely result in stronger
validity support are (1) for assessing situational sexual desire,
develop additional desire items about the index situation, such
as desire for different sexual activities (e.g., oral receiving, oral
giving, vaginal, manual, and anal); and (2) for assessing global
sexual desire, develop multiple prototypic contexts, such as desire
withan establish versusnew partnerordesire when at home versus
otherplacesordesirewhensoberversusintoxicated.However,itis
also conceivable that the low correlation between global and situational desire also reflects the possibility is that the situational
957
assessment could be reflecting the likelihood of actually engaging
in sex. Further, research is needed to address these and other possibilities.
The generalizability of these findings is limited. The immediate effects of consuming alcohol on sexual desire and arousal
were not assessed in this study. It is possible that changes in
sexual desire and arousal occurred immediately after the first
sip of alcohol; however, since this was not assessed in the current
study, the findings should be interpreted accordingly. Our sample included nonproblem drinkers who were interested in sex
with men. Additionally, the sample consisted of community women
who volunteered for sex research. Sex research volunteers are
typically more sexually experienced and have more positive
sexual attitudes when compared to individuals that do not
volunteer for sex research (Strassberg & Lowe, 1995). Finally,
the eroticized HOTM scenario was preceded by erotic films.
Thus, these findings may only be generalizable to individuals
who are primed with some sexual content or sexual arousal
while in a particular scenario.
Conclusion
This was the first study that has examined acute alcohol intoxication effects on women’s sexual desire and to do so using a
non-clinical sample and an experimental approach. Previously,
alcohol’s association with women’s sexual desire has been primarily studied with survey methods. Although experiments
examining alcohol’s effects on women’s sexual arousal have
been increasing in the past few years, experiments on women’s
sexual desire are needed to gain a better understanding of alcohol’s effects. Previous research has also relied heavily on clinical
samples selected for extant sexual and/or alcohol disorders. The
present research suggests that alcohol affects desire to engage in
sex in a particular situation, which merits research attention on
alcoholandsexualdesireinnon-clinicalsamples.Suchresearch—
combined with experimental methodology—could prove valuable in identifying and isolating elemental dynamics about the
degreetowhichwomen’ssexualdesireisresponsivetoalcoholin
a particular encounter. The current findings also extend evidence
that sex-related alcohol expectancies play an important role in
sexual experiences especially sexually risky experiences (Davis
et al., 2007, 2010; Hendershot, Stoner, George, & Norris, 2007).
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